IDEAS & TRENDS

IDEAS & TRENDS; A Clean BillFor Bendectin

By Katherine Roberts and Walter Goodman

Published: March 17, 1985

Between 1956 and 1983, 33 million pregnant women took the prescription drug Bendectin to relieve nausea. Then its maker voluntarily removed it from the market because of hundreds of lawsuits charging that it had caused birth defects.

Last week, a jury in Federal court in Cincinnati decided that the drug did not cause such defects when taken in properly prescribed doses.

The jury had to weigh conflicting testimony from experts. Some studies have shown that large doses of Bendectin cause birth defects in animals. However, the jurors were apparently persuaded by the drug's manufacturer, Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, that birth defects cited by the plaintiffs, whose suits had been consolidated into the one case, had been caused by other factors. The attorney for the plaintiffs said he would appeal.

''Bendictin is an innocent bystander,'' said the company's lawyer. ''There is not a single study that shows that there is an association between Bendectin and limb defects and other birth defects.''

Despite the decision, a spokesman for Merrell Dow said it will not put the drug back on the market.